Editors' Review

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by: Download.com Staff
on January 24, 2011

MART is a file format for electronic books, and we have to admit that we had never heard of it before. The paucity of Google results about this format made us wonder about its popularity, but it turns out that there is no shortage of people using the format to upload e-books for viewing with MartView. Not only does this e-reader let you view electronic documents, it also makes it easy to create and share books of your own.

MartView features a sleek and attractive design. The program comes with a user guide within its library of e-books, which is a nice touch; you can try out the program's features as you read about them. MartView features several views and methods of moving through documents: you can turn pages, scroll vertically or horizontally, or view thumbnails of the pages. MartView gives you access to a library of e-books--mostly magazines--that have been uploaded by others around the world, and there's no telling what you'll find. We came across the June 2007 issue of Total Guitar, several issues of The Economist from 2010, several Japanese girlie mags, and a German-language vegetarian magazine, among many others. MartView also makes it easy to convert your own PDFs or image files into the MART format to be uploaded and shared. We liked the fact that MartView works as a PDF viewer, too. The program is a bit of a resource hog, and we noticed a significant slowdown in our machine's performance while it was running; the program itself was also a bit slow to respond. Still, MartView's attractive interface and innovative method of sharing magazines make it worth checking out.

MartView installs a desktop icon without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program to all users.

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Publisher's Description

Martview is an eMagz reader that is compatible with pdf file and mart file. With comfortable & clean layout to maximize your reading pleasure on computer. Experience the new concept of digital reading. Thousands of free e-books & magazines uploaded by martview users around the world will sure to fulfill your reading interest.

Major Features: Horizontal & vertical slider viewer; Smooth & innovative slider mode emulates speed and slides through pages with ease. Just Use the Combo click (click left and right button simultaneously) to zoom in and out of the page. You have full control of the page with your mouse + scroller; Flipping Mode--Realistic flipping mode simulates a natural feeling as if you are turning the actual pages of your reading material. It's sure to provide another whole new dimension in electronic reading. Use the Combo click (click left and right button simultaneously) to zoom in and out of the page and have full control of the page with your mouse + scroller; Fully optimized for touchscreen monitor--Martview is optimized for touchscreen usage. Feel the book, browse through pages with swiping gestures, tap & hold to zoom, draw circle to adjust zoom level, shuffling rapidly through a book with a swipe-and-hold gesture; Jump around--Additional convenience when jumping around of the book with page thumbnail. Giving you additional speed so that you can save time by choosing the exact page that you want conveniently; Free book & magazine download--Thousands of Downloadable free e-books & magazines uploaded by other users around the world, with more then 20 genres that will sure to fulfill your reading interest. Download within martview conveniently and securely; Resumable download--Hassle free. You can resume back your download at any point of time upon connection error. No more worries about starting your download all over again; Create your own--Compilation made versatile, the Martview reader supports multiple file formats including pdf file or any other compatible formats such as jpg/gif/png. An e-book/magazine of your own will be a good platform to start your own editorials; Publish your book to the world, direct from martview. Just choose the pictures file (jpg/gif/png) or PDF file and compile it. Upload your book and get published to the world within hours.

What's new in this version:

Version 1.5 improves performance and usability, has faster initialization time.

I can convert pdf file to create e-mags, I can create comic files from .rar or .zip files to read as well. It looks great when converted! And, it works beautifully on the HP Touchsmart!

Cons

Utilizes a lot of your processor. Have to close other programs while it runs. Takes time to convert from .rar or .zip files to .martfile (which runs better on the program). And at this time they have not MAC version.

Summary

It has it's ups and downs. But as the review from CNET states, it's a recommend. Martview makes a statement about their product and it all is true.

1)New and exciting way to read magazines and files (you can flip the page,using the arrow keys)2)you can download all sort of documents (books,mags....) of various topics from the program library ! and also upload !

Cons

1)You have to convert the pdf files into .mart (extension created by the program) . And if you have large documents , the conversion can take a while !2)DONT count on the support,because they wont help you3)Some pdf couldnt be converted

Summary

Nice program , but dont count on it to read documents !!! Adobe reader is a more serious and professional program !!!

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